No you need it to be removed for inactivity. Otherwise the contact list gets filled by something like 400 inactive enemy scouts. If someone goes away for 3 years, we should have the option of freeing up that contact (and no, we don’t have a way to find out if it went inactive in game so this can’t be done manually)
Or they could give us a bigger contact list but that’s not happening.
I’m open to either solution since that solves the chief problem, but I am requesting the one the devs might listen to since Change contact limit of 1,024 - EVE Technology and Research Center / Player Features & Ideas - EVE Online Forums the idea of increasing seems to be a dead end and CCP won’t do it.